Recent seismic activity in the Asia-pacific region identifies the need for developing efficient, easy-to-use and economical techniques to mitigate earthquake risk. Yielding shear panel device (YSPD) is envisaged to play an important role in effective seismic retrofitting. A probabilistic seismic performance evaluation, based on the limit state probability analysis, is presented herein to examine the suitability of YSPD as a passive control device. The annual exceedance probability of a specified damage level is calculated considering the uncertainties associated with the seismic demand and the structural performance. Results obtained for the seismic performance of structures retrofitted with YSPDs are compared with those built without YSPDs. The effect of site specific seismic hazard is also investigated considering four different sites with varying seismicity.